In Screwed!, we expose the Rights of the Child Treaty which is now being negotiated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and will likely be submitted to the Senate this year (perhaps in the lame duck session).

Twenty years ago, during the Clinton Administration, the Senate refused to ratify the treaty. But now it is being pushed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA).

The Treaty, literally, tells us how to raise our children. And it would be legally enforceable in American courts under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Only a constitutional amendment could supersede the “rights” it confers on children:

• It bans spanking or any form of corporal punishment of children.

• Article 12 of the Treaty says “when adults are making decisions which affect children, children have the right to say what they think should happen and have their opinion taken into account.” Could this proviso establish a due process right of children to challenge their parents’ divorce or their decision to move?

• Worried that your children are hanging out with a bad bunch? Article 15 guarantees children “freedom of association.” It says “Children have the right to meet together and to join groups and organizations, as long as it does not stop other people from enjoying their rights.”

• The Treaty would stop states from trying children as adults and incarcerating them with adult inmates. It would require that even murderers in their teens be sent to children’s facilities rather than prison. Article 37 says “children should not be put in prison with adults.”

The Treaty requires all signatory nations to provide children with adequate levels of food, clothing, housing, education and medical care. In Britain, Prime Minister Cameroon is facing a lawsuit for violating the Rights of the Child Treaty by proposing a cut in welfare benefits.

It also obliges rich nations to “help poorer countries achieve the best health care possible, safe drinking water, nutritious food, and a clean and safe environment for children.” Enforceable in US courts, this provision might create a basis for judicial decisions ordering increases in foreign aid, just as courts now order steps to address overcrowding of prisons.

The Treaty would make a new level of busybody intrusion into our lives. Read all about this and the other treaties Obama is pushing in Screwed!